Did Henry Ford ever watch a movie on Majdanek Concentration Camp?

Question

I need some information for an assignment I'm doing for a history project of Henry Ford's anti-semitism

Answer 1

Google is your friend (and a lot faster than posting here).

According to the link below, yes, he did see it.

Ford was a well-known admirer of the Nazis. Ford was a racist, as were most men and women of his era, so that aspect of Nazism didn't bother him in the least. Antisemitism and racism weren't thought to be evil until after WW2 when we saw the results in the damage of the war.

Ford saw the dramatic improvements in the German country under the early years of Hitler (and let's face it, things got a lot better starting in 1932 until the beginning of the war), and was very much impressed. For the record, so was Joe Kennedy, who was then the American Ambassador to the UK, and father of JFK, RFK, etc.

Ford was a dictator in his own factories, and during this time viewed unions as a branch of the Communist party. Nazis hated Communists, and in the early days of Communism there were many educated Jews who were Communists (that was Hitler's justification for shooting Jews in captured countries in the early war months). Ford hired ex-cons and mobsters to keep the workers under control, not unlike the use of thugs by Hitler (to become the SS) to keep the peace in Germany.

I know that Henry Ford Museum doesn't shy away from the topic, and they are very education-oriented, and therefore a phone call to them might give you a great source of info.

Lastly, Ford had a mistress. Ford forced a gay Ford manager to marry the woman so it would look better for "polite society". Ford had a boat on his estate, and he'd drive up the Rouge River to visit the lady (he'd helped the couple buy that house).

Answer 2

not sure, but how would someone know if he watched a certain movie?